Italian Physical Society : Galactic diffuse neutrino component in the astrophysical excess measured by the IceCube experiment

Abstract

The Galaxy is a guaranteed source of neutrinos produced by the interaction of cosmic rays (CRs) with the interstellar gas. According to conventional CR propagation models, however, this emission may be too weak to be detected even by km3-scale neutrino telescopes. This expectation has to be revisited in the light of recent Fermi LAT findings showing that the CR spectrum in the inner Galactic plane is significantly harder than that inferred from local CR measurements. Here we discuss some relevant predictions of a phenomenological model-based on a spatially-dependent CR diffusion-which was recently developed to reproduce that large-scale trend. In particular, we show how that model correctly predicts the TeV γ-ray diffuse emission measured by Milagro and H.E.S.S. in the inner Galaxy. We will then compute the corresponding neutrino emission, compare it with ANTARES and IceCube results and discuss the perspectives of KM3NeT.